Armin Arlert vs the Dream
by ThalioTP
Summary: Armin began to have these weird dreams where he lived another life, and it was beginning to happen in the real world. Now it is his responsibility to make sure whatever happened in his dreams, never happen in real life. Arukuri, ModernAU, rated T for slight cursing and other T rated themes.
1. Chapter 1

**_Hello, my name is ThalioTP! (Don't mind the TP part, it doesn't stand for anything...)_**

 ** _In this fic, Armin I portray as depressed/angst sort of character. But later on he will be more of a confident boy._**

 ** _I will continue this fic if you guys wants me too._**

 ** _And... Did Armin's parent went to the Outside World when he was a child, or did they die in another way?_**

 ** _If so... Read on..._**

 ** _Please review! And tell me your opinions!_**

* * *

Armin sat under a tree like what he always do every Saturday afternoon, he brought a bag full of books each had different subjects for his entertainment. His nose was dipped inside the pages of _The Brothers Grimm: the Complete Works_ , reading furiously words by words.

He heard the noise of a bell, he looked behind him where on the top of the hill was a group of children playing on their bikes.

He went back to his book, he didn't bother to join them.

"Ah! Wait up guys, I dropped my helmet!" A boyish voice rang out.

Armin's focus was distracted by the sudden noise in the grasses as an object rolled down the hill, a reddish helmet stopped rolling just beside him.

Then a boy his age quickly galloped beside him to retrieve her helmet, Armin quickly hid under his book, but his eyes were raised in curiosity just on top of the book's level.

A boy with brunette hair bend down beside him to grab the helmet, then he noticed Armin.

"Oh, hey." He said.

Armin lowered his book "H-Hey…"

"What are you doing here?" The brunette boy asked.

"Just reading." Armin said, _why was he asking something so obvious?_

"Oh, well, cool." The boy scratched the back of his head "Do you want to play with us? I'm Eren, by the way, Eren Jaeger."

"Armin Arlert." Armin said, his thoughts drifted off to his words, he had never been asked to join anyone to play with them.

"Eren!" Another voice rang out, it was a bit more girlish in sound.

Then a girl with long straight black hair went beside Eren, once she notices Armin she immediately looked back at Eren.

"Oh Armin, this is Mikasa, she's my sister!" Eren pointed to the girl beside him, Armin greeted her with his own name. "So do you want to play with us, Armin?" Eren made a broad grin.

Armin felt his heart flutter, he smiled widely "Yes! Of course!" He said happily

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Armin heard a loud knocking on the door "Hey Armin! Come out and play!" Said the voice of Eren.

Armin happily jumped downstairs from his bedroom "Just a minute!"

He went passed his grandfather on the way down, watching the news once again "Your friends, Armin?"

"Yes grandfather! I'll be home before five o'clock!" Armin waved him goodbye as he went to the front door.

Outside, Eren was already waiting for Armin's arrival with Mikasa clinging beside him.

Armin took his shoes and greet them "So what are we doing today?"

"I was thinking if we could go to the park today, me and Mikasa wanted to get an ice cream!" Eren said with determination, Mikasa nodded in agreement.

Armin realized that he hasn't had any pocket money "But, I don't have any money."

"Don't worry, I'll buy you one!" Eren offered graciously.

And with that, they all went off to the park, laughing loudly as they did.

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"So, Mikasa was adopted?" Armin's eyes widened by what Eren had told him.

"Yeah, don't tell her I told you, kay?" Eren warned "She doesn't really like me spreading it."

Armin nodded "You can trust me."

"Good," Eren said in relief "Trust me, dude. You don't want to be around her when she's angry."

Armin laughs in agreement "So… What happened to her real parents?"

Eren didn't answer at once, he looked thoughtful "Her parents was killed in a car crash, and I was there when they did." He whispered loudly.

Armin tried to look contemplative.

"So I gave her my scarf," Eren said, then he added quickly with a slight blush "Because I want to comfort her, you know?"

"Yeah, so that's why she always wore that scarf?" Armin asked.

Eren nodded.

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Armin woke up with a pain in his head, he looked at his wall clock. Why did he suddenly woke up at two in the morning?

He tried going back to sleep again, and as he drifted off to dream, a searing pain went to his head. Armin yelped in surprise, rubbing his forehead together.

He stared at the ceiling for half an hour, before he optimistically went back to sleep. Maybe then the mysterious pain would stop.

Instead, he felt he was leaving his bed, soaring through the clouds. _Must be a dream_ , he thought, _But… It feels so real!_

He saw a bright light, but in flashes. He began to hear noises, but muffled and impossible to understand. He began to realize what the voices were, screams of fear. He looked at his feet, he was standing instead of lying down, his heart was beating quickly inside his chest. Then with the flashes of light he saw his surroundings, people running, old looking houses, cobblestone roads, and flying debris. _What the heck is going on?_ He screamed internally.  
But just right then he saw beside him, he was utterly bewildered when he saw both Eren and Mikasa in his crazy dream. They were both looking at something with horror stuck in their faces, Armin's instinct told him to look up, that's when he saw something that made his body froze completely.

A giant… So big… So terrifying… Just before he could process it all, everything went dark and light and dark and light all of a sudden. He can't move! He was having a sleep paralysis!

 _No!_

 _No!_

 _NO!_

 _NOO!_

"ARMIN WAKE UP!" A booming voice brought him into existence.

Armin gasped and choked, not knowing what just happened. He looked straight into his grandfather's eyes, which was full of fear and worry.

"Oh my god, Armin! Don't scare me like that!" His grandfather held him tightly on the shoulders.

"G-Grandpa?" Armin stuttered, his body was sweating a lot.

"What happened, son?"

"I-I don't know… " Armin could not stop his heart pounding painfully, tears began to swell up.

"Are you feeling alright? Do we need to take you to a hospital?" His grandfather said thoughtfully.

Armin thought for a moment, he wasn't feeling anything painful, he only felt really terrified for a couple of minutes "N-no, I don't think so…"

"Are you sure, Armin?"

"Y-yeah… Yes…" Armin nodded slowly, his eyes still struck with a mix of confusion and fear.

The next morning, he came to the school with a heavy heart. Mostly because of his dream last night, it was nothing like a common dream, it felt more realistic yet he knew it was inside his head.

So what was that, then? And why was Eren and Mikasa in it?

He felt a hand tapped his shoulder, it had made him jump about higher than before.

Amrin turned around and saw Eren. "Dude, what's wrong? You looked like you saw Mikasa on her period!" Eren laughed at his own joke.

Armin just stared at him.

Eren wiped a tear from his eye "But seriously, I haven't seen you jumped like that. You look so pale at class, you wanna come to our today?"

Armin thought for a moment, maybe he did need a company "Sure, why not."

"Sounds great! And we can play that new game my mom brought me." Eren said with high hopes.

They heard a knock on the classroom door, it was Mikasa "Hey, it's time to go home."

"Sure thing!" Eren said, then he tirmed to Armin "You coming?"

"Y-yeah!" Armin packed his books and shoved his homework inside his bag. He quickly followed Eren and Mikasa outside.

Armin was fighting the urge to tell them his dream last night, but what's the use? It was just a stupid nightmare.

"Hey, there's smoke…" Mikasa suddenly said.

Both Armin and Eren looked up, there was a thick grey smoke coming from the distance, the smoke looked very big, making Armin came to a conclusion of a burning house.

"What happened there?" Eren asked.

Armin saw in horror, no, he must be wrong. "Isn't… Isn't that your house?"

They all paused for a moment, Eren and Mikasa was thunder-strucked. And so was Armin, but it wasn't just the burning building of the Jaeger residence, it's because it was somehow familiar.

"No…" Eren started "MOM!-"

Just right then, an explosion happened, loud enough for them to hear. But right after that, came another, more nearer explosion. Everyone around them stopped at what they were doing, some began shuffling away from the scene, making others follow.

People around them began to ran towards the opposite direction, while the trio moved forward.

* * *

 ** _Soo, that was chapter 1, yay!_**

 ** _Leave a comment in the review... I can't wait to see it!.. And I am just dying to update this fic, hopefully my other fics too._**

 ** _Review if you liked it!_**


	2. Chapter 2

**_Hi guys, Thalio here_**

 ** _And this is chapter 2!_**

 ** _Leave an opinion in the reviews and I will write more_**

 ** _Oh, and, pairing had just been decided, so, read on!_**

* * *

It had been a few months since the incident, Armin remembered when the headlines of the news channel read _GAS LEAK RESULTING IN DESTRUCTION OF THREE HOUSES._

That accident cost the life of Carla Jaeger, Eren's mother. Since then he was never the same, Armin waited and waited for him to come to his house again and ask him if he wants to play. The start of summer had passed, and still no contact from the Jaeger residence.

However, Armin did not visited him since, he thought that it was best to leave Eren with his thoughts.

"Poor kid." His grandfather said from the sofa, Armin took a glance from the dishes to him.

"What is it grandpa?" Armin asked.

"Your friend Eren and his sister I mean." His grandfather entered the kitchen and went to the fridge "He never come to our house again, I feel bad for the now single father of theirs. Grisha's his name, right?"

Armin continued washing his dishes "They'll be fine after the summer, I'll talk to him once we go to our new school."

"Oh yeah," His grandfather said in realization "You have your things ready yet, kid?"

"Sure thing, grandpa!" Armin said happily.

"Remember that you'll be going to a Junior High School, Armin." His grandfather took a glass of vodka.

Armin rolled his eyes "I know, grandpa."

"You need to get your physique toughen up!"

"I know, grandpa."

Armin was still thinking about the dream, it haunts him still when he realized that what he dreamt was no normal dream.

Then, came a short knock on the door. Armin immediately went to greet the visitor. But was immediately surprised when he realized that it was Eren.

"Ah! Eren!" Armin said in surprise.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a bit?" Eren said in a rather soft voice. Beside him stood Mikasa, with her red scarf around her neck as always.

"S-sure," Armin leaped out of the house and joins them "What do you want to talk about?"

Eren exchanged glances with Mikasa. "Well, the thing is, I wanted to tell you that I- that _we_ , would be going to Sina Junior High." Eren explained.

Armin cocked a brow "Sina Junior High? I thought you'll be going to Shiganshina Middle School?"

Eren scratched the back of his neck "Well, that's what we thought… But, dad founds a house far from here, and we live with him, obviously…"

Armin felt his heart drop "So, what are you guys doing here?"

Eren looked at Mikasa again, then it was Mikasa's turn to say "We wanted to say goodbye to you, we thought that maybe we can spend some time together for the last time."

Armin held back his tears "For… The last… Time?"

Eren quickly took a step forward "O-of course not, like, the _last_ last time, but, we won't be seeing each other for a long time."

Armin said nothing, he was rooted to the place.

"So, do you want to, like, go to the park? Or get an ice cream?" Eren smiled softly, even Mikasa was looking down to her feet.

"Of course I do!" Armin cried, if it WAS the last time, he wanted to make it memorable.

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Armin looked at his thumbs as he twiddled them in class, it had been two years since they departed, Eren's last words were his Email address and instructions to send a message. Armin stared at his paper, unfilled for the first ten minutes.

"Mr. Arlert?" The teacher called from the front desk "You need to finish the test if you want to pass the semester."

Armin heard a couple of snickers from around the class. And a mumble of "Guess he's not so smart after all."

Armin lowered his gaze, but sighing ultimately. With the pencil in his hand he filled in the questions with ease, he mocked the one who made the tests internally. With a heavy heart, he flipped his page and finished the second part.

Armin wanted to go home so bad, so he hastily stood up from his desk and stomped up to the teacher's desk, he puts his test there and without another word he left the classroom. Earning a couple of disbelieved glances.

Armin walked home with his backpack carried on his shoulder, he looked at the ground under him as he finds a way home.

He heard a few muffled sounds on the corner in front of him. He looked to his right and slapped himself mentally as he accidentally ran into _them_.

A group of children, older than him, started to notice the blonde short kid. "Oy Armin!" One of them called loudly.

Armin gulped and wanted to shuffle away quickly, but one of the punk kids had already grabbed his shoulder.

"You're home from school quick! What are you, a genius?" Then the punk kids laughed.

"You look so puny to be a genius!" One of them scoffed.

The punk kid who held his shoulder tightened his grip, making Armin almost lost his balance "Don't listen to them Armin! Say, you don't coincidentally have any money, don't you?"

Armin gulped "No…"

The punk kid narrowed his eyes "Come ooon! Can I borrow some from you? I promise I'll pay it back!"

"I-I don't have any money!" Armin said.

Armin did not realize the sudden jab to his stomach, the punk kid had hit him with his knee. Armin fell to the ground backwards, holding his stomach in pain. He only heard the laughs of the older kids.

"If I find any money in your backpack, you'll be so dead!" One of them began to yank his backpack of him.

Armin reacted quickly and held his backpack with all his strength, only to be kicked in the face.

And once the foot had made contact with his nose, he felt another stinging pain, followed by flashes of light. He had another vision or dream! Armin realized. _In broad daylight?!_

But the dream was different, there were people, they were all wearing the same uniform, they were fighting each other. He was also fighting someone, but he couldn't make out who the person he was fighting with.

Somehow, his reflexes worked. And kicked the punk kid right in the crotch. Armin stood up from his ground shakily, his vision was flashes of the real world and his dream.

There were mixes of voices, some he did not recognize.

But when his eyes began adjusting again, he returned to the corner where he stood. His head was feeling more painful than ever, but he was standing up instead of being on the ground.

Armin's eyes widened when he saw that around him were the punk kids, all holding parts of their bodies in pain.

Armin gasped in bewilderment, _I just fought them… D-did I?_

Armin took no time to linger, he quickly ran home with his backpack. Armin entered his house and locked the door, once he was inside he began looking for his grandfather. Only to realize that he had left a note on the fridge, saying the he went to the market.

Armin sighed in relief, staring himself on the bathroom mirror. Checking everything from his eyes, then his tongue, and lastly his temperature.

Oddly, there was nothing wrong with him. The only thing out of the ordinary was how fast his heart is beating.

He felt rather weird, but one feeling he knew was an obvious confusion. But somehow, he felt happy, was this the feeling you get when you show dominance?

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Armin had closed the shades and turned off lights, he was ready to sleep.

"Dream test number 76." Armin said to himself as he made himself comfortable under his blanket, writing in his diary "Last night I dreamt about Eren and Mikasa again, they were fighting this other guy I remember called Jean something."

 _Hopefully tonight I'll get the second part_. Armin thought, and with that, he drifted to sleep.

There was nothing at first, but then, the pain happened. The hot stinging needle inside his head, followed by bright flashes of light. Armin kept his hopes up, but still couldn't make out the flashes that was happening.

Then, one scene came to attract his eye. He saw people, sitting and drinking, then he saw himself talking to a girl, a beautiful blonde that he had never seen before in his entire life. The girl smiled the softest smile, she was like a goddess.

But his dream was stopped suddenly, his eyes snapped open as he heard a ring of a new message in his computer.

Armin quickly went to his computer, looking at the inbox he thought that it must be Eren. Only to realize that the message was delivered by Mikasa.

Armin opened the message, and it started with a simple " _Hey Armin, how is it going?"_

Armin typed quickly, " _It's been good, thx."_

There was a small note on the bottom of his computer saying **MikasaAckerman is typing...**

" _I wanted to check on you, it's been a while"_ Mikasa typed.

Armin chuckled to himself _"It's been a long while! :D"_

" _Yeah, haha."_

" _So how are you and Eren?"_ Armin asked.

" _Same, but Eren got his nose deep inside his new PlayBox."_ Mikasa typed.

Armin replied quickly _"Oh wow, I really want to see him play!"_

" _How about you? How are you?"_ Mikasa asked.

Armin paused for a moment _"I'm having these weird dreams about you…"_

" _Really?"_

Armin began to feel his cheeks warming _"No! Not in that kind of way! I meant about you and Eren."_

Mikasa took a moment to type _"What's it about?"_

"Oh, I don't know…" Armin sighed to himself, then he typed _"Dream stuff, I guess? I don't really remember it much…"_

" _Oh, well, I should be going to sleep now. I know you are very tired, I'll see you tomorrow"_

" _Yeah, see you.."_ Armin typed back. And with that, Mikasa went offline.

Armin slouched to his seat, his last dream made no sense, and so does the dream before, they all took place on the same wooden house with candles and long tables. Armin thought for a moment, the scene change, but the background always is the same.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Yeesh, this story's getting on by itself. Because when I need an inspiration, nothing came._**

 ** _And when I did get an inspiration... Aaaaand it's gone..._**

 ** _Anyway,_**

 ** _review!_**

* * *

It had been five years since he had last saw Eren and Mikasa, five long years Armin had lived all by himself. He still had no close friends, sure he knew a couple of people from school to school, but he knew they only needed him for their studies, and nothing else.

Armin stared at the blue sky as he lay down on the side of the hill, cheeks tickled by grass. With a book on his chest, he sighed heavily, tomorrow he was going to move away from his home. Apparently the nearest High School was very far away.

All he wanted to think about was the clouds, and the sky, and the smell of freshly mowed grass… Wait what?

"Hey kid, are you going to move or what?". Armin leaped in surprise, he hadn't notice the grass mower was blocked by him, and the angry face of the man driving it.

Armin scratched the back of his head and apologized to the man, Armin left quickly.

For the past three years, he had already gotten used of his dreams. But none of them made any sense, and eventually none of them ever happened in real life.

Armin was beginning to be sure that his dreams were mere coincidence, and thought nothing more of it.

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"Hey Armin, excited for your new school yet?" His grandfather asked him cheerily from the driver's seat.

Armin however was too busy looking out of the window, staring at his old neighborhood as the car drove away from it.

Armin broke out of his zone "Hmm? What was that, grandpa?"

"Well I'm proud of your scores, son!" His grandfather smiled "Never in a thousand years I had seen someone getting straight 100s on every test! You, sir, are gifted I tell ya!"

Armin couldn't help but chuckle "I have to hand it to the teachers though."

"So, Armin, I wanted to talk to you about something." His grandfather said "It's about school."

Armin raised his eyebrow "Which one?"

"All of 'em! I've already told you this, but you seem to never listen."

Armin felt more puzzled "What is it, grandpa?"

"Well, for starters, let's see, how many friends do you have?" His grandfather asked.

Armin thought for a moment, he opened his mouth but no sound came out. His friendship between Eren and Mikasa had already been questioned, they had talked less than ever, it makes Armin wonder if they are still his best friends.

"I-I have friends…" He could only say that to his grandfather.

But only to earn a loud sigh from the front seat. "Listen Armin, once you had started school I want you to make some friends. Don't linger to Eren and Mikasa anymore, son."

Armin looked up, disbelieved by what his grandfather just said "They are my best friends!"

"Of course they are!" His grandfather said "What I'm trying to say, kiddo, that you should have _more_ best friends!"

Armin said nothing, he stared at the window once again. Where was he going again? Oh, yeah. That's right, _boarding school_.

"Grandpa," Armin started "Once I'm in the boarding school, does that mean I won't see you again?"

His grandfather did not say at once "Of course not, you can visit me whenever you like!"

"Why do I have to learn in a boarding school, anyway?" Armin asked coldly.

"Because," His grandfather said "This is not some ordinary boarding school! This is Maria High School! The best you can get in the country, and with that test scores of yours there's no way they won't let you enter!"

Armin chuckled at the compliment.

"Oh, and hey. Are you still getting those dreams?" His grandfather suddenly asked.

Armin glance up "What do you mean? I get dreams every day, humans dream seven times a night."

"Now don't you get smart with me!" His grandfather warned playfully.

Armin sighed as he smiled "I guess it's just a coincidence, nothing serious."

"Hmm, alright, I believe you."

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Armin closed the car door behind him, though he accidentally closed it too hard. His grandfather quickly got out of the car and looked at the back door with worried eyes.

"Don't slam the door Armin!" His grandfather cried, rubbing his palm on the car "This is a 1940 collector's item Porsche! It's priceless!"

Armin rolled his eyes "Sorry, grandpa."

His grandfather stood up to his level and hugged Armin before he left for school, Armin hugged back, knowing that it would be a long three years.

"Alright, take care Armin. I'm gonna miss ya!" His grandfather said as he lets go of him, patting Armin gently on the head.

"Don't worry, grandpa. I'll be fine." Armin reassured him.

His grandfather sniffed his nose and wipe a tear out of his eye "I'm so proud of you! My Armin, becoming a genius! Oh, sorry, you're already a genius!"

Armin laughed "See you later, grandpa!"

His grandfather got in his car and started the engine, Armin watched as his grandpa drove away.

Armin puts a hand on his hips as he looked at the gates of the boarding school, the building was massive and it looked like it was enough to fill every club in the world there.

He pulled his two trolley bags and went inside.

Armin walked through the gates and looked around the front garden, he saw a few people sitting on the fountain in the middle. His first thoughts was the library, he wonders where it is placed as the library was probably his second favorite place for calmness after his bedroom. Of course, this is boarding school, and that would mean that he would share his bedroom with some stranger.

"HEADS UP!"

"Wha-?" Armin looked around, but was suddenly got hit by something blunt and fast.

Armin stumbled sideways and fell on his shoulder on the hard cobblestone floor, Armin held his head in pain. _Good thing I didn't dream of something again…_ Armin thought to himself.

"Goddammit Connie!" A voice broke the silence. Armin began to pick himself up, until he felt a pair of arms bringing him up.

Armin looked at the person holding him, and he saw a bulky teenager with short blonde hair looking down on him.

"You okay kid?" Said the teenager. He noticed Armin's trolley bags, he turned to Armin again "Are you new?"

"Y-yeah." Armin muttered, still holding his head.

"Oh, well, in that case, I'm Reiner Braun." The teenager held out his hand. In one hand he held a basketball he had just picked up.

Armin took the hand and shook it gently, fearing that Reiner would break it somehow. Armin took his hand back and picked up his bags, as he reached out for his second trolley bag, Reiner took it.

"Let me help, always glad to help a freshman!" Reiner smiled, it was obvious that he was being nice, but Armin was still having his conscience telling him stay away.

Armin shook it off and forced a smile "Thank you, um, Reiner."

"Delighted." Reiner led Armin inside the building, while carrying one of his bags with one hand.

Armin stared at Reiner, wondering how the boy carried his bag with ease. That bag is filled with all his books for god's sake!

Reiner turned to look at him from his shoulder "You haven't told me your name."

 _I haven't? I must've been an idiot staring at him_. "I'm Armin Arlert."

"Where are you from?" Reiner asked.

"Shiganshina."

"Really?" Reiner asked, amused "You're very far from home!"

"I guess." Armin nodded in agreement.

Reiner turned on a corner and stopped in front of a particular door. He put down Armin's bag, "Well, this is it."

Armin raised his eyebrow "This is… What?"

Reiner chuckled "Well, you certainly need to consult the principal first!"

Armin slapped himself mentally, _of course I do… why did I forget?_

Armin bid Reiner a thank you and went inside the principal's office, once he was inside, the room was very cool from the air conditioner. He noticed another blonde haired man sitting on his chair, scribbling at papers furiously.

Armin cleared his throat, and then the man looked up. Armin saw his name desk saying 'Erwin Smith'.

"Are you new?" Mr. Smith asked.

Armin gulped and nodded curtly.

Mr. Smith looked down to his notes, and cleaned his desk "Very well, let's get started."

Armin felt confused again "Start what?"

"Well, firstly if you want to attend this school you will address me as 'Mister' or 'Sir'." Mr. Smith said.

"Yes, sir." Armin said.

Mr. Smith seemed satisfied "Do you have your school reports?"

Armin blinked, then he reached down to his bag to take out layers of paper put in a small binder. He knew carrying them was worth something later, so he gave it to Mr. Smith.

As Mr. Smith read the whole thing, Armin couldn't help but notice the admiration in his eyes. Mr. Smith double checked his papers, once he was done he looked back at Armin.

Armin and Erwin stared blankly, until Armin broke the silence "Er… Yes?"

Mr. Smith did not answer at once, he looked like he is trying to gather his thoughts. "This is definitely something, Mr. Arlert. Even I haven't seen anyone get full marks on each and every one of their tests."

Armin noticed the suspicion in Mr. Smith's tone, Armin gulped again "I-I can assure you that that's real, erm, sir."

Mr. Smith raised his eyebrow. "Then how about a little pop quiz? Surely it won't bother you."

Armin screamed inside his head, _A pop quiz? I haven't even gotten IN yet!_

"Why do you think this school's worthy for you? What is your life's dreams, Armin?"

 _Oh…. It's one of those…_ "Well, I… But what do you mean 'worthy for me'?"

"You got full marks on everything, a genius like you shouldn't be hanging around with us. Right?" Mr. Smith asked.

Armin felt confused, what was this question? "Well, I was hoping that, I could…. Erm, you know… Get some friends… A-and I don't care, actually. About tests and homework I mean. I actually really like studying."

Mr. Smith stared at him "I see, then I expect you to be getting full marks on most of your classes."

Armin blinked "Eh?"

"This school proves the best in us, Mr. Arlert, each and every one of us. And I want to prove that you are who you say you are." Erwin then went back to scribbling his notes.

Armin stood there for a couple of second "Er, what should I do now?"

"Get to the reception desk, there, Rico will give you your school badge and dorm key."

* * *

 ** _Well this is certainly most fascinating, a record breaking 3 chapters in two weeks._**

 ** _I hadn't done that since I wrote TheWalkingDead AU. And that fic hadn't been updated._**

?: Thalio! It is I!

 ** _Wha?.. Who is that?_**

Captain Inspiration: Feast your eyes upon me, young Writer! And let me bestow upon you... The inspirations!

 ** _YAAAY!... So where is it?_**

Captain Inspiration: ...

Captain Inspiration: I have forgotten... But most not worry! Because someday I will come again! Unexpectedly! Suddenly! Unknowing-

 ** _Get out..._**

Distracter & Lazyness: HURRRR! HURRDURR!

 ** _NO! YOU TWO GET OUT! OUT! OUT! OUT!_**


	4. Chapter 4

**_Whew, this chapter's a handful. Well, not exactly, I'm just pretty occupied at the moment with Aruk- I MEAN-! Fakoff!_**

 ** _SO YEAH! A little news about the pairings, I think I have to consult with Sally the Shipper at the moment. But I know it would be a bad idea knowing that she'd end up talking about her OTP._**

Sally: HEY! EreRI is a legitimate OTP!

 ** _Again... Is it really necessary to ship those who have long goddamned age gap?_**

Sally: YES!

 ** _Jesus fucking christ..._**

* * *

"Room 48. DON'T LOOSE THE KEY!" Rico Brzenska snapped as she shoved Armin's dorm key to his chest.

Armin blinked at the ash-color haired receptionist, she was a short tempered woman with glasses. Once she started barking, she immediately went back to reading her latest issue of _Titan Times_ , while putting up her bored expression.

He quickly shuffled away from the reception desk and went on his way with his trolleys.

Armin wiped a sweat off his eye, he heaved and pulled at his two heavy trolley bags. Despite his unnaturally smart brain, he should've think twice before bringing the **dictionary** with him. Why did he still even has it? He mastered almost four languages for goodness sake!

After the long hallway of the first floor, he encountered the flight of stairs leading up to the second floor.

"Of course…" Armin muttered, punching the wall mentally. "How did I forget about stairs?"

Armin kept on a steady, slow pace, carefully not to let go of his trolleys or else it will roll down the stairs. And he couldn't have that, it was bad enough that his bags were heavy, he didn't want to do it twice.

Climb one tread, pull up one bag, pull up the second, repeat the process. Armin cursed at his scrawny body, and his long golden blonde hair only makes it worse as the sweat began wetting his bangs.

Armin finally reached the second floor, looking for air conditioners everywhere. Why is the only machine that's capable of putting the heat into oblivion, is only located in the principal's office?

The second floor hallway did not look like a dorm floor, it was filled with classrooms with sliding doors. There was also notice boards and such. Regardless, he was relief that he doesn't have to deal with stairs again. But he did have something else to deal as he bumped into someone.

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't see you there." Said the girl he had just met, she had long black hair which was tied to two pigtails. Apparently she had just gotten out from one of the classrooms, luckily the people inside did not see him bumped into her.

Armin shrugged "Don't worry, I get that a lot." He noticed at his feet was books, and the girl bending down to pick them up. Automatically, Armin bended down to help the girl as well.

"So, you're new." The girl said, she held some of the books she had just picked up close to her chest.

"Yeah." Armin said simply, picking up the rest of the girls book. They both stood up, and Armin gave the girl her books back.

"I'm Mina Carolina, what's your name?" The girl smiled as she gave her hand for him to shake.

"Armin Arlert, erm, hi…" Armin smiled awkwardly as he shook her hand.

"What brings you to our school?" Mina asked.

Armin shrugged again "I guess… It's because, erm, I don't know, I guess I'm just curious."

"Don't worry, when I first got here I was looking forward on being a head journalist. Turns out I didn't get to do jack!" Mina explained.

"THAT'S NOT WHAT JACK SAID!" Boomed a voice from the classroom.

"BOOM!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Get it? Because she f-"

"Yes, I get it Thomas! Thank you for pointing that out!" Mina glared daggers at the boys, she slammed the door shut and turned to Armin. "You'll have to excuse them, they are bound to act that way."

Armin only smiled weakly "I-I have some friends who can relate."

The he smiled to himself. _This school maybe isn't so bad after all, the people are somewhat nice and unique,_ Armin thought, _what could possibly go wrong?_

"You know, if you get in trouble, you can always ask me for help!" Mina smiled sweetly, then she added "It's nice to help a fellow girl!"

 _Oh yeah… THAT._

Armin etched an annoyed grin "Sorry, but I'm not a girl…"

Mina blinked rapidly, then her eyes went wide in realization "OMIGOSH! I am so sorry! I-I didn't mean to-"

Armin quickly shuts her up by raising a hand "It's alright, I get that a lot."

Mina bowed down in embarrassment "I. Am. So sorry!.. Um… Er…"

"Armin…"

"Armin! Right! I am so sorry, Armin!" Mina's voice was filled with high pitched squeaks, whereas Armin held his mouth shut to prevent himself from raging out.

Armin took a deep long breath "It's alright, I get that a lot too. Can you point me to dorm room 104, please?"

Mina stared at Armin in confusion "Erm, you'll have to get to the dorm building first."

"The what?.."

"You'll have to get to the dorm building first." Mina repeated.

There was a bit of silence between them. _You know what?_ Armin thought, _screw this school_.

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Armin had had it, he had never put on a frown this long before. Once again he dragged his trolleys through the building, then out to the garden, and get across it to get to the dorm building.

Armin dropped to his knees as he reached the top floor, his ears picked up voices from the hallway of the dorm building, his glanced went from the red carpeted floor to the ruckus of freshmen carrying their boxes full of school items.

Armin lifted himself up again, getting used to his trunks he pulled them both on the carpet. Seeing the other students he suddenly felt the need to sit on the corner of his dorm, reading his books while sitting on his dictionary. Fuck that dictionary.

"Hey Jean, can you help me with these, please?"

Armin felt his head glanced up as he heard the name, he stopped in his tracks to find the source of the voice. A few feet in front of him was a tall light ash brown haired boy, with his undercut cut short. The boy was busy playing on his smartphone while standing in front of a dorm room, not even glancing up to look at Armin. He didn't even know if Jean had even noticed him yet.

"Jean?" Another boy's head popped out of the dorm room, the first thing that Armin noticed was his freckles.

Jean suddenly glanced up from his trance "W-what?"

"Can you get those boxes, please?"

Jean hesitated for a few seconds, before moving the box with his feet, eyes still locked on his phone. "High score!"

Armin shook his head and went on his way, his thoughts drifting off again. Jean, where has he heard that name before?

"Have you heard?" Said a boy to his friends as Armin walked passed them. "Christa Lenz is going to this school!"

Another scoffed "Yeah right, as if she'd go to a boarding school."

"I don't know," Another joined in "Said she's looking forward to her new boarding school on Twitter last night."

"But what statement would prove that she'd go to this school?"

The boy the other referred to shrugged "Well, this is the by far the best boarding school on the country, right?"

"Well anyway, if she does go to this school, I'll be the first one who'll hit on her!" The last voice was pretty familiar, it was Reiner. His statement filled with determination.

Armin did not catch the rest of the conversation as he was already face to face with his dorm room, what about his roommate, though? Well, there's only one way to find out.

Armin held the doorknob and opened it inwards, as he took a step inside he saw a brunette boy kneeling down next to the bed, putting his trunks under it.

The boy glanced up at Armin, his green eyes met his ocean blue. "Roomate?" The brunette said.

Armin nodded "I'm Armin."

The boy raised his eyebrow "Armin?"

"Yeah, Armin Arlert." Armin shrugged.

The brunette boy's eyes widened, he quickly stood up and stared at Armin. The brunette's sudden movement made him flinch.

"You're kidding!" The brunette exclaimed.

"W-what?" Armin stuttered, horrified and confused at the same time.

The brunette opened his mouth, but closed it again. "D-don't you remember me?" The boy pointed to himself.

Armin scanned the brunette top to bottom, his first guess was no. but then it struck him.

The brunette opened his arms in greet "It's me! Eren!"

* * *

 ** _Mina is a year older than Armin, I have the feeling that it is needed._**

 ** _I don't know why though... Why am I talking about this?_**

 ** _Please review_**


	5. Chapter 5

**_HEY LOVELIES!_**

 ** _Worst. Intro. Ever._**

 ** _Shut up, me!_**

 ** _Anyway, thank you for your support and consideration to the story so far!_**

 ** _Now, enough talking! ONTO THE STORY!_**

* * *

Armin felt a searing pain inside his head, a familiar sting that had been long forgotten. Now he knew what drew a thin line between normal dreams, and THOSE dreams. The sting.

Armin did not quickly wake up, his first thought was to force himself up. He didn't want to go experiencing more of these unnatural dreams, but out of all his denial he was pretty curious of what would turn up inside his head.

And just as he thought of punching himself up, he was drifted off to the vision. His eyes swiveled quickly under his eyelids, catching up every bits of flashes he could take. But of all the dreams he had had, this one was more… Vivid.

Armin finds himself sitting on a hard surface, he observed his surroundings, and his eyes widened in shock as he realized that he was in a new location rather than where his old dreams took place.

He was sitting on the rooftops of a city, tall walls surrounds it, circles it, and cuts him off from whatever was lying on the outside. But his thoughts were focused on the streets below, he held his stomach and closed his mouth to prevent himself from vomiting. Blood was splattered across the ground and mutilated body parts were scattered everywhere, and it now occurred to him what happened. Not far from where he sat he heard screaming, only to see the person who cried in agony was being devoured by a larger person. A gigantic humanoid who had red fresh blood spattered across its terrifying grin, Armin had no time to scream as he was suddenly being picked up.

Armin looked down at his impending doom, a long black tunnel of another giant's mouth.

Falling. Falling. Falling.

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Armin woke up with a jolt, his body jerked forward with so much force that he had not realize the bed frame in front of him.

Armin's head collided with the top of the bunk bed with a loud CLANK! He quickly had his hands all over his forehead, hissing in pain and disbelief.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." Eren's sleepy voice was heard, he had just came out of the bedroom with his toothbrush. "Wow, what happened to you?"

"… Nightmares…" Armin answered through gritted teeth.

Eren cocked an eyebrow "Well, shake it off will you? I don't want to be late on the first ceremony, I'm looking forward on getting high grades this year!"

Armin lowered his gaze, but then his shook his head "F-fine…"

"And put on your new uniform, we don't wasn't Mikasa pestering us with her 'mother's love' once we get to the ceremony." Eren said through foam filled mouth.

"Eren, don't brush your teeth in the bedroom." Armin glared at him as his headache has passed away. "Wait, Mikasa's here too?"

Eren spits in his glass after he washed his mouth "That's what I said last night."

"You said that last night?"

"Yeah."

"No, you didn't…"

"Yes, I did."

"No… You didn't…."

"… Yeah…"

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The ceremony was held in the field on the side of the school buildings, Armin expected much as a dusty concrete ground. But somehow the school can afford the most decent field he had ever seen, it was an average sized football field with white bleachers, but what caught his eye is that everything was neatly treated.

The artificial grass was trimmed and cut until each and every one of them had the same level of height, the bleachers had no signs of rusting and even the paint looked like it was put on just ten minutes ago.

Armin had himself in the front of the group, avoiding the heat of the group of people. He had both his hands on the back of his waist, while his thoughts drifted again to his dream. He had become more anxious ever since his dream had played in his head, his thoughts centered on what-could-haves and what-couldn't-haves of the dream.

His personal zone was suddenly being invaded by murmurs of the crowds, he turned his head a little bit to the right towards the girls group. A new pupil had just joined in their group, earning a couple of glances from the boy's side.

Armin had his eyes caught by the sight, the new girl was a heavenly sight indeed as her petite physique adds up to her long blonde hair. But what caught his eye the most was that the girl was somehow familiar.

 _No, it couldn't be her. The blonde girl should've had a tall tan tomboyish standing by her side at all-_

"Hey! Hey! To close, bub!" A tanned girl suddenly pushed away all the girls that had been ogling on the blonde one as they got to close to her.

"Ymir!" The blonde hissed.

 _Figures…_ Armin deadpanned mentally. _Now all we need is a bald brute for a-_

"EYES FORWARD, YOU NITWITS!" A voice boomed from the speakers around them.

Armin flinched as he heard the sound, he looked forward and only to see a group of teachers gathering in top of a platform.

Armin slapped himself mentally before he could think of another thought, his eyes are now locked onto the source of the voice. A tall bald man with the darkest sets of eyes even Sauron could not compare, his goatee only brings out the evilness within.

"NOW I DON'T WANT NO SCREWIN' AROUND WITH Y'ALL BUNCH OF MEAT SLOBBERS! IF I FIND ANYONE CHATTING ON CEREMONY, I'LL SHOVE A CORNCUB UP YOUR BUNKHOLE!"

And at that last statement, that each and every one of the student's flinched altogether, some of them even grabbed their rear in defense.

Armin even saw a few teachers looked at the bald man in disbelief.

The man looked around the group of students, trying to catch a pupil with his hawk like vision. "Thank you. Now, you may address me as Mr. Shadis. But I don't like to be called Mister, so don't. As much as I like to know each one of your names, I'd rather have myself fighting a bear than getting friendly with each and every one of you! Because that doesn't matter here!" Shadis's voice was more powerful than poison, every time he speaks Armin could feel his spit coming from the speaker.

Shadis went silent, and everyone else did too. They all had their eyes towards a sudden sound of munching from the girl's group, nearly everyone was too afraid to look as Shadis went down from the platform to investigate the sound.

Armin had himself looking from the corner of his eye, a brunette girl with a ponytail came face to face with Shadis. Armin thought of the worst, which was her being thrown to a pit of grizzly bears.

The girl had a baked potato in her hand, while her cheeks stopped munching the bits of it inside. She seemed to be paralyzed by Shadis's appearance.

"What's your name?" Shadis said.

The girl gulped off the potato in her mouth "S-Sasha Braus…"

Shadis paused "Why are you eating a potato on the ceremony?"

"I-it wasn't my fault I was hungry, I haven't ate breakfast…" Sasha stuttered.

Shadis clicked his tongue "I see. Then from now on, you'll be called, _Meatloaf Girl_."

"M-meatloaf girl?"

"So you could be our own display of irony. NOW DROP AND GIVE ME TWENTY!"

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Armin wasn't fond of the classes either, he first thought that it was only Shadis who is downright crazy. But it turns out that even the science teacher Ms. Zoe was even more so with her eccentric personality, and her freakish obsession for science.

And if 'turning teaching into a horror story' was a competition, she'll no doubt win first prize.

"And that is the example of the pineapple's proteolityc enzyme." Ms. Zoe finished, her glasses gleamed with glee. "Amazing isn't it? How pineapples evolves and develops new kinds of ways to save themselves from insects, imagine having proteolityc enzyme in its purest form, it must have been painful to chew a-"

"Alright, we get it! Just stop telling us about it!" Jean shrieked from the back of the class.

Ms. Zoe lowered her gaze, much like a predator. "I'm sorry Mr. Kirschtein, did I gave you the permission to talk? I'm afraid I didn't, so two hours of detention would be nice for you, hmm?"

And right at that moment, someone came to burst into the classroom. It was the petite blonde girl from before, her face was reddened from the clear sign that she had been running.

"Ah! I'm sorry I'm late Ms. Zoe! I was at the bathroom, and I don't know where the classroom is!" The girl huffed.

"Oh, don't worry about it Christa. It's your first day, after all. I'm not going to punish someone who just got in their first year." Ms. Zoe smiled sweetly.

"What the actual-" Jean murmured, but was cut off as Ms. Zoe added.

"Why don't you sit next to dear sweet Armin over there?" Ms. Zoe pointed an empty seat next to Armin.

Armin felt his face heated as a couple of snickers came to broke the silence, but shook of his embarrassment as Christa had agreed to sit next to him.

Apparently, Christa was a huge celebrity star, singer perhaps. Armin did not bother to ask her which song was hers, as it would be really rude. But mostly it's because that her friend, Ymir, was glaring at the back of his head. Even Armin could feel the invisible heat rays she gave off.

"Now!" Ms. Zoe banged her fists eagerly on her desk "Who's ready for some pop quiz?"

Nobody made a sound, some even looked away to avoid themselves being spotted.

"You! Mr. Jaeger! How many digestive enzyme classifications based on their target substrates?" Ms. Zoe jabbed her finger sharply towards Eren, how raised both his hands in defense.

"M-me? But I don't know what substrates mean!" Eren squealed in surprise.

Armin sighed, determined to save Eren's skin, he raised his own hand. "Five, proteases, peptidases, lipases, amylases, and nucleases."

For a few seconds, everyone was completely dumbstruck. Ms. Zoe however was more than pleased "Correct! So very correct, Armin!"

Everyone was eyeing him closely, making Armin nervous. _Seriously, this is fifth grades kind of easy!_ Armin thought.

"Wow, I didn't know you were so smart!" Christa said beside him.

Armin glanced at her "Well, it's no big deal, there's actually smarter people than me."

"Don't be so modest, maybe you can help me with my next class?"

"S-sure, why not, right?" Armin said. _Stop talking, stop talking!_

"I'm Christa, by the way." Christa offered her hand, but took them back and blushed furiously "S-sorry, I forgot that I had introduced myself earlier…"

"It's okay, really." Armin assured her, blushing as well. _Wait, why are YOU blushing?_

Ms. Zoe began writing on her chalkboard, she tapped the chalk on her desk a few times "For our next assignment, I'll be needing you to solve these five easy questions!"

There was a couple of loud groans coming from the class, there was a brief moment where everyone opens up their notebooks. Armin had groaned as well, internally of course. This is very easy, why is he doing this?

"Shoot!" Christa hissed softly, her pencil paused after drawing the number '1'.

Armin glanced at her then to his notebook, then at her again. He pointed out the tips and tricks on finishing the essay, and even gave out how important units of measurement were.

They were like that until the end of the class.

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"Dude, I can't thank you enough for saving my ass back there." Eren said as they settled down at the cafeteria to eat lunch. Mikasa had joined them too, Armin was surprised on how much she had grown. Apart from her red scarf of course.

"It's no problem. Anyway, how are you Mikasa?" Armin turned from Eren to Mikasa. They began chewing their pork as they talked.

"I'm fine." The raven haired girl answered with her blank face. "How are you all these years?"

"Fine as well." Armin nodded "I can't believe that at the end we'll be going to school together again." He smiled brightly.

"Well, I did promised that we'll grow up together." Eren said, earning a nod from Mikasa.

Armin eyed Mikasa closely "Aren't you hot from wearing that sweater?"

Mikasa said nothing, she made a small shade of pink.

Eren laughed at her reaction "That's priceless! What? Aren't you going to answ-" His voice was cut off from Mikasa's sudden jab.

And right at that moment, Christa and Ymir decided to join in.

"Hi guys!" Christa was as cheerful as always, whereas Ymir was eyeing them closely.

"Hey Christa." Armin greeted her, he almost asked her to sit down beside him. But fortunately she had sat down beside him anyway.

Eren was, of course, making a stupid face. A clear sign of trying to make a first impression.

"So you're Christa Lenz, huh?" Mikasa said from behind her scarf.

"I liked to be called Christa." Christa said. "Oh, and this is Ymir." She pointed to her tanned friend.

"'Sup." Ymir said. She was indeed taller than anyone from their table, she had a small portion of her hair tied to a ponytail on the back of her head.

"By the way, Armin. Thanks for helping me out back there." Christa smiled sweetly at Armin.

Armin scratched the back of his head "O-of course, it was no problem."

 _Why are you acting like this? You never talked this way to a girl!_ Said one voice in Armin's head.

 _Shut up, me!_ Another voice said.

Then right at that moment, Jean and his friend Marco decided to walk pass with their lunch trays. Jean was making a contorted face as a fly began to buzz around him.

Jean gritted his teeth "Get away from me, pest!"

Jean slapped the fly away, only to land at Eren's soup. Eren was more than furious, he quickly stood up and engaged at the taller boy.

"Hey, what the hell, man?!" Eren exclaimed, tugging at Jean's collar.

"What the hell is your problem, Jeager?!" Jean spat back.

"G-guys…" Marco tried to get between them, but the space between Jean and Eren was getting thinner and thinner.

"You swatted a fly at my soup, _John_!"

"It's freaking _Je-an_ , asshole! And it's your fault you sat there!"

Ymir began joining in the fight "Hey! Hey! Get your own space, dickheads!"

With her size, Ymir easily picked them both up at their collar. Eren was struggling to let go.

"What the hell?! Let go of me!"

"Ymir!" Christa hissed at her friend.

"Eren please! Calm down-"

Eren however, accidentally slapped his soup off the table. Unfortunately the fly was still barely alive, struggling to fly, the small insect finds his way into Armin's mouth.

* * *

 ** _Well, that was longer than expected, good job me! (Tapping my own shoulder)_**

 ** _Please review your opinions in the comment section (comment section? Really?) And I'll be seeing you guys with another chapter! Love you, and goodbye!_**


	6. Chapter 6

**_Hey what's up guys, it's Thalio here..._**

 ** _And today I'm doing my chapter 6 fic, and I know a lot of you guys wanted this for a while._**

 ** _The fans seemed to want it, and honestly..._**

 ** _I just want to show you guys my daily life, I mean, I just like to stay inside... Usually check out on memes... Umm, you know, I just really enjoy the indoors... Ah, you know, uhm, writing sometimes..._**

 ** _I understand a lot of you guys wanted this, leave a review if you enjoy. And I'll see you later._**

* * *

Armin opened one of his eyes, he blinked a few times before yawning to his pillow. Armin lifted his head up, and got off from his bed. He looked at the clock and saw that it was a quarter past three in the morning, he could go to sleep again but somehow he knew that there was no point in trying, again. Because just two hours earlier he even had the trouble to fall asleep after the overthinking moments of his recent dream, it was antagonizing to watch considering that he remembered all the familiar faces that was present there and dead.

Eren is still fast asleep, his body scrawled over his blankets. Not even one moment did his snore did not leave his mouth, and that was another problem Armin needed to face at the dead of the night.

"AKH!" Armin hissed in pain as he tripped over his dictionary, he picked up his balance and rubbed his pinky toe. "Gosh darn it…" At the darkness he glared and hissed at the giant book on the floor, deciding to shake it off he walked over towards the desk on the corner of the room.

Minutes past when he just rests his chin at his knuckles, contemplating about life and shit. But mostly unimportant things that suddenly ran past his mind, his track of thoughts stopped at the sudden flash of Krista Lenz. That was when an entirely new feeling bloomed inside his stomach, he stopped to feel his newfound body function.

His mind suddenly began showing random pictures of her without no reason, though he did not wanted to, he can't seem to stop himself from grinning stupidly.

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Armin started the day with Eren and Mikasa again, the morning breakfast was held at the cafeteria again. The next day was, unexpectedly, pretty boring although it is only seven in the morning. But only to Armin of course. People like him never gets the fun out of life, if there was people like him. Luckily for him though, Eren and Jean Kirschtein chose not to pick a fight with each other today.

"Hey, do you think that the food here taste weird?" Eren suddenly contemplated, prodding the cold meatloaf with his fork. "Instead of meat I only tasted ketchup and loaf, and, you know, eggs."

"Yeah, well, get over it kid." The school janitor said as he walked passed them, pulling a wheeled mop bucket behind him. "Meats are expensive these day, and worst of all our budget income has gone in a landslide considering the lack of freshmen this year."

"So wait," Armin started. "If it's not meat, what is it, then?"

The janitor, named Hannes according to his nametag, only shrugged in response. "I don't know." He simply said before walking away muttering bitterly to himself.

Armin then turned to both his best friends. "You, uh, you guys feel like eating?"

"I lost my appetite." Mikasa said nonchalantly, shoving her unfinished food to the center of the table.

"I'll get used to it…" Eren muttered with his mouth filled with another bite of a meatloaf, he rested his head as he chewed by putting it on his hand.

Armin stared down at his plate before shoving it away as well, he sighed to himself as he rested his face on his arms.

"You look tired." Mikasa said.

"I haven't got much of a sleep last night…" Armin confessed, looking up towards her. "I think I'll be fine for the rest of the day."

"What made you awake, anyway? You never see me having trouble sleeping." Eren said, chewing on another bits of meatloaf.

Armin returned a half scowl. "Try sharing a room with Eren Jaeger, then you'll see…"

Surprisingly Mikasa took it as a good joke, she chuckled twice before returning back to her usual quiet self. She pulled out a paper timetable that was folded inside her pocket, after a few observations she stated that the first class they must attend is mathematics with Mr. Levi.

Rumor amongst the juniors has it that Levi is undeniably scary and very intimidating, a quick observation on the seniors made by Armin shows that some of the students here even feared the said teacher. Though if the teacher is to be feared, then he would have no problem impressing him, and that would save him the fear for later.

"Welp! I hope you got your books ready, cause I'm about to get straight A's!" Eren stated unconvincingly as he stood up from his seat, his nose up in the sky from the ego as it seems.

Armin only laughed at his enthusiasm, scoffing at the thought of saving Eren's butt from being cornered by questions again. He stood up from his seat as well while followed by Mikasa, as their books are ready in their bags they just need wait for the bell to inform them the start of the second day.

Armin walked pass the cafeteria door side by side with Eren and Mikasa, he listened to them talking when suddenly something caught his eye. Principal Erwin Smith was there at the end of the hallway to his right, next to a coffee machine where his hand is obviously holding a hot cup while the other stirs the contents. The man stared at Armin for a while before nodding as a sign of greet, Armin had no time to nod back as Erwin walked away and out of sight.

"Hey! Come on, Armin!" Eren told him as Armin had unknowingly slowed his pace.

"Ah! Coming!" Armin said back, catching up to them and started to walk in the same pace.

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"You all be quiet or I will have you out of my classroom this instant, you will not be warned again." Mr. Levi said threateningly in front of the class, his long ruler intimidatingly pointed towards the students.

Levi was surprisingly small, very surprisingly small for someone to fear. But the grown man proved them that size did not matter when it comes to the art of being so freaking terrifying, Armin had release a couple of breaths he did not realize he had been holding when he landed his sight on Levi. The man had short raven black hair that is divided in the middle, his eyes are so unnaturally forward and focused, and apparently he had not taken a liking to dust and filth. The pipsqueak already slapped someone on the cheek with his ruler and dared him to call the principal for being loud, Eren had a close shave when Levi saw him talking to Mikasa at the back of the class. Armin could only watch in silent since he had no choice, his original plan was to impress the teacher as much as he could, but something told him that Levi would just hate everyone no matter what they do.

Well, at least his hatred equaled on everyone.

Krista however, who is again sitting next to Armin, patiently waited for a time to raise her hand an asked a few questions when Levi started the lesson. Armin telepathically told Krista that she could just ask him and not Levi, he is always there.

Armin decided to just shrug it off and went on with the lesson, as the class began to write down the things on the blackboard Armin took the time to think about his recent dream once again. He remembered the incident years ago at his old town, his dream predicts the future, and never in his dreams when a dead body showed up. His stomach lurches at the sudden though of what could happen, it was clear that he needed to do something.

"You! Blondie!" Levi said hatefully, pointing his ruler at Armin. Both Armin and the rest of the class looked up at the teacher, "Why aren't you writing down?"

"O-oh? Oh! Sorry sir…" Armin apologized.

Levi stared down at him with cold eyes, "If you even began to think about underestimating my teaching methods, you don't know what's coming for you. I hate people who never takes things seriously, did you think that you could pass this semester without-"

"H-he's pretty smart," Krista suddenly piped up, earning a disbelieved stare from Armin. "He got full marks on all of his tests!" Even though she looked dead terrified, she finished her sentence just in time.

"I don't want you to talk, did I gave you a permission to talk?" Levi begrudgingly said.

"N-no…" Krista squeaked softly.

"Then don't." Levi told her without any mercy in his tone, then he turned to Armin again. "Yes, I've known about your full marks and I must say I am… Slightly impressed…"

The compliment came as a surprise to everyone in the class, Armin began to soften a bit at his statement. It was good enough so he'll take it.

"But you don't know me." Levi added in an icy tone, then he turned to the class and raised his voice. "No matter how smart you think you are, I'm not going to let you out easy. But since the school rules told me that each and every one of the students here has to be treated equally, I'll just raise the difficulty a little bit just to make sure each and every one of you bastards suffer."

There was several gasps and murmurs, followed by soft grunts of disbelief.

"Simmer down! All of you!" Levi yelled, putting his hands behind his back. "Open page twenty two and finish assignment one to five!" He ordered them.

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"That went worse than I expected." Krista said, to put her thoughts simply as she talked to Armin. The both of them walked together through the hallway to get to the next class. "Sorry I couldn't do anything back there."

"Nah, it's alright." Armin rubbed the back of his head, unsure of what to say. "You didn't have to do anything, it was my fault anyway."

"I was right, wasn't I?" Krista said with a frown, now Armin had conclude that whatever expression Krista makes it will never change the fact that she's cute. "You're really, really smart and Mr. Levi just failed to see that! He has no rights to push you down like that!"

"It's alright, Krista, I'd rather have my intelligence not being spread out in public." Armin said in response. "I feel like they're just going to use me, you know? And then I'll only exist only when they need me."

Krista looked down to her feet. "Sorry… Maybe I shouldn't have done that, huh?"

"No! Don't apologize." Armin suddenly backtracked. "I-I don't mind, actually."

"Hey, Krista!" A booming voice suddenly spoke out from behind them, Ymir came out of nowhere and began choke-holding her little friend on the neck softly. "Where you off to? Huh?"

Krista could not help but laugh at Ymir's attitude. "We're just getting to class, Ymir!"

At the mention of 'we', Ymir's head swiveled and found Armin standing right next to them. The boy only stared at the eye of the giantess in hope that she wouldn't rip his limbs off. Ymir lets go of Krista after she knuckled her head with her fist, the tall woman bent down towards Armin.

"What's up, Arlert?" Ymir said.

"N-not much… You?" Armin said, trying to be polite.

Ymir shrugged, then without another word she began talking to Krista again. Armin only sighed at the two of them, he knew that their conversation would take longer than expected.

"See ya, guys." Armin waved them off before going towards his class.

Krista noticed him and waved back enthutiastically.

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 ** _Leave a review!_**

 ** _And... Yeah, that's the whole deal..._**


	7. Chapter 7

**_Sorry for the hiatus, guys! I have been super busy lately, but no worries though!_**

 ** _Welp, this is the chapter you've all been waiting for._**

 ** _You.. You've been waiting for this haven't you? Right? No?_**

 ** _Well! Whatever! Let's just get on with the story shall we?_**

 ** _And as always, leave a review!_**

 ** _P.S I do not own Hajime Isayama's AOT, all his characters belong to him. Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer. Let's get on with the story, shall we?_**

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Armin took notes of the school after his first week, the boarding school did live up to its expectations and does not take kindly on the lazy and the talentless. Armin had every teacher in his school to be impressed with his intellect; except for Levi, if the man gets impressed by anything it would be more valuable than gold. Although Armin did not care if Levi took lesser fond in him than any other student, mainly because so much more are literally head over heels at him, but most importantly because the queen bee Krista Lenz.

Ever since her move to the boarding school, it was rather annoying to have that many people surrounding her at the time, she had been late for class twice after giving the people she ran into her autograph.

"You're too nice, Krista." Armin remarked, his eyes trailing the boy who had just gotten Krista's autograph written on his forearm with a pen.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Krista replied with an innocent smile.

Armin felt something inside his stomach flutter at the sight of her face being shined from the sun just right, he took marks of her dimples, the inches between her eyes, and the way her small lips formed a small smile.

"Armin?" Krista asked again for reassurance, after he snapped back to reality Krista couldn't help but to giggle. "You zone out a lot, don't you?"

Armin blushed brightly, stuttering as he tried to come up with a good reply. "I-I just like to get back in my thinking zone, you know?" He scratched the back of his head nervously.

Krista cocked an eyebrow, but she is still smiling. "What were you thinking about?"

And with that, Armin gulped the overload of saliva inside his mouth. The warmth inside his body turned into panic, his brain began making scenes of nightmares and worse case scenarios.

 _So, this is it…_

 _What is this?!_

 _Dude! Stop being stupid and hit on her already! She's been giving hints, you dumbass!_

 _I can't! W-what if she'd think I'm a creep?_

 _Just say the words, man… Just breathe in and say it clearly!_

 _Alright… I'm gonna do it!_

"Oh, look! The bell's rung." Krista chirped up before taking her bag off the canteen table and walked away to join Ymir to her next class.

Armin was still frozen, not until- "I was thinking about y-"Armin had said his sentence to damn quick, his train of thoughts stopped when he realized that the seat next to him was empty. Luckily she wasn't there to hear him fail to speak his words.

Armin frowned at himself, while his head is currently fighting against each other his body is frozen to the spot on the canteen.

"Well, well, well!" A booming voice laughed from behind him, the only source of its obnoxious voice could only be belonged to Eren Yaeger. "Damn, Armin! Never really thought that you would've taken interest in girls, but regardless, congratulations in hitting puberty, man!"

Armin frowned harder at the sight of his best friend towering over him with the widest smile he could make, his hands on both hips looking like he had taken over the dominancy in the school. Mikasa, like always stood right beside him still nonchalant and mysterious, mysteriously giving him a quick thumbs up.

Armin couldn't bear the embarrassment, he cupped his face with both his hands and groaned deeply into them. Knowing Eren, the boy could be trust in keeping a secret, but Eren has a special tendency to let things slip out of his mouth without him realizing.

"How long have you guys known?" Armin asked the both of them through muffled mouth.

"Oh, since Wednesday! It was suuuuper obvious, even I noticed!" Eren said simply.

"Great, the one time that I thought I could've gotten a chance to hit on her without any distractions…" Armin mumbled to himself, eyes narrowing in annoyance.

"I bet you ten bucks these two will end up kissing by the end of the month." Eren said to Mikasa playfully.

"I bet you twenty that these two would be dating at the end of next week…" Mikasa smirked at him through her red scarf.

"You're on!"

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Saturday morning was not a very pleasant morning if you have asked Armin, he felt really hollow when he woke up like something is missing inside of him. Then he felt longing, his body began making new uncontrolled emotions such as this one. He couldn't sleep anymore, the exact same nightmare had repeated that night, and the more he remembered the more he had hear the word Titan scribbled all over his brain.

Armin got up from his bed and climbed down while still ignoring Eren's snores and carefully walked out of his dorm room.

"Ack!" Armin hissed in pain, he instinctively grabbed his left toe and looked down to see what he had just kicked.

 **Thanks for the dictionary, Eren! -Marco**

Armin kicked his dictionary again, now with a little bit of irritation, before shoving it back to his dorm. While still in his sweatpants and white t-shirt he explored the males dorm hallway in the break of dawn, the school had never been so quiet, maybe it's because he woke up to early and everyone's still sleeping. Regardless, it felt quite nice to be honest.

After desperate minutes trying to find something to soothe his mind he realized that the fountain should be a nice place for him to relax, and with that he walked down a flight of stairs and onto the first floor where the laundry and clean bedsheets are. There was also a door that leads to the water heater and a door that was suspiciously off limits, if his instincts are talking they would say that something fishy might be going on here.

Armin got out of the dorm building while humming a tune to himself, his body shivered at the cold wind that just blew past him. Maria High Boarding School has a rather large park in between the dorm and the academic building, the road is paved with smooth cobblestone path with shady trees and all kinds of plants put randomly to décor the road, Armin can see the botanical garden and the greenhouse beyond the trees.

There is a water fountain up ahead, planning on sitting on the edge and listening to the sweet sound of the waters on a quiet morning Amin quickens his pace. But only to slow down when he saw than someone else was already there.

Krista Lenz herself is sitting on the edge of the water fountain while still wearing her silk white nightgown, her skin looked twice as bright on a grey morning, and her light blonde hair got hit by the morning sunlight just right it gave off a warm reflection.

Armin never realized how really beautiful she was, no, how she always going to be very beautiful no matter what situation they are in. He can imagine her angry, which he immediately thought as cute. He can imagine her crying, even when she's sad she is still beautiful.

Krista did not seem to notice his presence standing on the smooth cobblestone road just a few feet away from her, Armin took the chance to get a closer look and see what she was doing. As it turns out, Krista calmly swiped the water left and right and circle with her forefinger, her face lacked the expressions.

Armin can't tell if he should clear his throat or poke her shoulder, at one point he even thought of pushing her in for fun.

"G-good morning, Krista." He settled to a normal greeting, smiling nervously as Krista looked at him.

Krista brushed a few strands of hair out of her face, her eyes widened at the sight of him. "What… What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I figured that I took a little walk. You know?" Armin said, stuttering a lot.

Krista blinked a few times before smiling and nodding in understanding, she scooted from where she sat to give him a space to sit.

Armin calmly took the invitation, of course. "So, what are _you_ doing here?" He asked her.

Krista seemed troubled to answer for a little while. "I couldn't sleep as well, sooo…"

Armin nodded at her before silence completely taking over between them, the both of them fidgeted at where they sat completely feeling awkward and insecure.

"Does… Does anyone know you're here besides me?" Krista asked him.

Armin shook his head. "Does… Er, Ymir know you're here? With me?" He said nervously.

He received a giggled as a response. "You sound like that if he finds out about you she'll likely to murder you." Krista said, smiling.

Armin scratched the back of his head, feeling the rising temperature in his cheeks. "Well… Can you blame me?"

"Don't worry about Ymir, if I trust you she trusts you too. Besides, I bet she's too busy snoring right now to even think about looking for me." Krista assured him, when she brought her hand to her side she accidently put it on top of Armin's making them both blush.

The both of them heard a rustling on the bushes in front of them, alerted their visions quickly locked on forward. Suddenly, Janitor Hannes's head popped out of the bush and when he noticed the two he froze for a few seconds, after that he stood up and ran away from the scene without uttering a word like a wild animal, in his hand was an empty beer bottle.

"So, ahah… What do you want to do today?" Armin asked her, rubbing the spot where her hand made contact with his.

"Erm, what do I want to do in particular, or what do I want to do with you?" Krista asked him, ears still red from blushing.

Armin's face flushed red. "No! I-I mean yes… I-I mean- you know!"

Krista giggled furiously at his stutters. "Sure, I'd like to hang out with you."

"Really?"

Krista nodded before standing up, she brushed her nightgown off of dusts and stood on a tiptoe. "I guess… I'll see you later then?"

Armin was disappointed, he wanted to have more time with here at the moment. But he decided that maybe he could do that on a later day. "Sure." He smiled.

"Good." Krista said, before leaning up to kiss him on the cheek.

Their reactions were instant, the two of them immediately went blushing furiously. The both of them were silent for a few seconds before Krista mouthed 'bye' and walked back to the dorm building.

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"Hey Armin!" Eren called from the distance, snapping Armin out of his daytime reading.

Armin sat on the bleachers of the field, just under the shade of a giant oak tree, reading a book about Zen from the school library. Then Eren came up to him out of the blue.

"We're going to the market, you wanna come with us or not?" Eren called out.

Armin looked at the group of people behind him, he did not recognize any of them except one particular senior with her black hair tied to a ponytail. This must be Mina Carolina's friends, the ones that joked about her on his first day here.

Armin was unsure of what to say. "Oh, uh, is Mikasa coming?"

"Nah, she has homework to do. I don't think she'll be going anywhere until her work is done." Eren smiled brightly.

Mikasa, who is coincidentally sitting on the bleachers just a few steps below Armin perked up from her math book. "Don't you think you have homework t-"

"So you wanna go or what?" Eren cuts her off with a voice unnecessarily louder.

"Eh, what the heck." Armin muttered to himself before walking down the bleachers and putting the small book inside his vest pocket. When Armin is grouped up they quickly went off the gates.

Mikasa stared at the crowd before going back to her math book, not saying a single thing.

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"Hey, look at the size of these melons!" Nac Tius said with glee, holding up two medium sized melons and held them in front of his chest. "Don't you think I look like Mina?"

"Pffttt, no way, man! You need avocados for that!" Thomas Wagner, his friend, said. And the both of them broke to a fit of laughter.

From afar, both Mina and Armin were listening. Yet only Armin noticed the murderous glare she gave off. The market was a gigantic place which seemed more super than regular, there are many fresh products from meat to dairy to vegetables. The market also has an array of beverages and snacks located deep inside the building, and if that's not enough there's even a household item section. Luckily the whole place has open windows and good air conditioning so no smell came to his senses.

"Free samples?" A staff asked Mina, handing a tray of fruitcakes.

Mina blinked. "These are free, right?"

"Of course miss!"

And instantly the market was filled with flying fruitcakes that only targeted both Thomas and Nac, after a few minutes even the most vengeful of beings Armin has ever known had gotten tired.

"Hey Armin," Eren poked at his shoulder, when Armin turned around he was wearing a bloody hockey mask. "Can I borrow some money?"

"Erm, sure?" Armin said with hesitation, handing out a twenty dollar bill.

Eren took it happily and walked away. "Thanks, man!" He said with his voice muffled.

For half an hour later they did just that, find a useless piece of junk and throw it in the cart. It only seemed that only Mina took the fresh ingredients while the others picked whatever they wanted, Armin however did not picked up anything at all since all he brought to the market were twenty dollars.

"Hey, you want me to buy you something?" Mina offered to him.

"No thanks, I think I'm okay with cafeteria food." Armin rejected kindly.

"Well, maybe at least you should buy one of these." Mina said as he walked beside him, she picked up a bag of salted chips. "You know, as an apology for calling you a girl."

Armin chuckled at this. "It's alright, I get that a lot."

When they all went to the cashier to get all their products scanned, all of them got flabbergasted at the amount of money they needed to pay for. The cashier began to look somewhat annoyed and irritated when all of them rounded up and debated instead of paying.

"So how are we going to split the money?" Said Mylius Zeramuski. And with that, everyone looked at Mina.

Mina, with her lips pursed let out another uncomfortable aura. But she ultimately sighed and took out a wallet from her pocket.

Most of them cheered in happiness.

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On the way back, Mina is quiet at all times. Her gaze is cold and icy, expressionless, even. The rest of the boys, except Armin, was talking loudly and totally ignoring the two of them. Even Eren was joining their fits of laughter.

Armin couldn't help but to take glances at the pigtailed girl two makes sure she's alright, if he had any power over them he would definitely put them to justice.

Mina surprisingly chuckled, to herself as it seems. "'m fine, Armin! Don't worry about it."

Armin blinked at her. "A-are you sure?"

"Yeah, they're always like that. Irritating, annoying, loud, always making unnecessary jokes. But in the end they always repay me, either that's food or money or something. Thing is, I'm alright with it." She smiled at him, assuring him once more.

Armin hummed to himself the road back to the school was exhausting enough as the afternoon sun took place in the sky, normally he would be dying for a lemonade right now but as they got on top of the hill he could see how beautiful the world really is.

"Hold up." Thomas said, making everyone stop instantly. "Look, Titans."

Armin perked up at the name, he was expecting giant naked people with terrifying face, but in front of them were only a group of humans. But nonetheless, bigger than any one of them. He could see at the expressions of the others that the Titans meant trouble, who these Titans were they seemed to be wearing the same red jock outfit.

"Keep moving!" Mina said in an alerted voice, but ushered as if afraid of someone else hearing.

Armin already has a sickening feeling when they approached the group of Titans in front of them, whoever they were they seemed to be students as well.

The Titans stopped at their tracks, there were a group of boys and one girl, which looked like the ugliest girl Armin has ever seen.

"Hey look," One of the Titans said to his friends. "The Marias got us groceries!"

Armin stiffened at the nickname, are they bullies? Bad people?

His friends, too, stopped at their tracks as the Titans circled around them. Like a pack of gazelle, they are surrounded by predators.

"Thanks, anyway. We'll be going with this, now." Said a taller Titan, taking a plastic bag out of Nac's hand. Surprisingly, he didn't do anything but stare.

"Hey, man! What the hell! OOF!" Eren's shouts were muffled when a knee was brought up to his stomach.

"HAHA! Looks like we got ourselves a dummy here!" The kicker said with malice, he loomed over pained Eren with a clear expression of dominance and power. "You're a freshman, aren't you? Well, thing is, what we do to freshmen at your school is kind of a big tradition."

Armin could only stare at Eren while he is on the ground, holding his stomach in pain. His heartbeat fastened in fear and anger, he is shocked that the others including Mina, did nothing at all. They all stared palely, colors literally flushed away from their cheeks.

"Got any eggs in there?" The kicker said to his friend while kneeling next to Eren.

His friend checked the stolen plastic bag. "Nah, just some milk."

"That can work, open it and I'll- AGH!" The kicker yelped in pain, Eren had suddenly threw a sharp jab up his stomach.

A chain reaction happened in an instant, the Titans began to prey on Eren, Nac and Thomas picked them off one by one, but only to be overpowered by their enemy. Mylius began to help his friends, he threw a sharp jab up a Titan's chin, and the Titan stumbled back only to counter him with a hit on the stomach.

"Get away from him!" Mina shrieked bloody murder, pulling a Titan off Thomas when he was tackled down.

The Titan girl attacked her from behind, giving Mina no chance to see it coming. And with that she fell backwards and landed painfully on her shoulder, she whimpered in pain but the Titan girl loomed over her and chuckled in mockery.

Without any hesitation Armin lets himself snap, he might be scrawny but at the least he could do something. "Get away from her!" Armin shouted out, he shouldered the Titan girl with every power he had.

The Titan Girl was thrown back, and sort of thrown aback when she realized her opponent. The girl scrunched up her ugly face to an even uglier frown of distaste, with a furious shriek she charged forward towards Armin. The blonde boy knew exactly what to do, after all those times reading martial arts books he picked up a few techniques to keep himself safe on the streets when he was younger.

Armin tackled her, ju-jitsu style. Watching as the Titan girl slowly picked herself up he took the chance to help Mina up. "Come on! We need to get out of here!"

"Armin watch out!" Mina shrieked when she stopped reaching for his hand.

With a sudden crack of a bone hitting bone, Armin got hit painfully on the cheek with the hardest punch he had ever felt. Armin got thrown back by surprise, when he fell to the hot afternoon asphalt he couldn't see anything clearly. The punch must've had so much power that it took him the ability to see, and if that's not enough he couldn't move his jaw without feeling immense pain.

Suddenly his vision blackened, and glimpses of light occurred. His dream, melting with reality. This was what the dream had told him, this was what he had feared since days ago.

"Let's just get the goods and go!" One of them said to the others, picking up a dropped plastic bag on the floor. "Screw these people, we can deal with them later!"

"Fuck! My arm!" Said the Titan girl as she had finally stood up. "Kid just fuckin' threw me."

"Don't care." A Titan hissed at her. "Now let's just go. We don't want to be late for PE class."

Armin couldn't see where the Titans went, at this point he did not seem to care anymore. When ten minutes passed he gained enough strength to pick himself off the ground, his vision still blurry but he could make out what was in front of him.

Mina was sitting on the ground, hugging her knees while tears streamed down her face. Thomas got his face beaten up so bad blood spilt on his face features, almost making him unrecognizable if not for the blonde hair. Nac helped Mylius up from the ground, only to get ushered away by him.

Armin cupped his recently punched cheek in order to feel it for himself, he hissed at the pain from contact.

It was then that Eren decided to walk up to him. "Oh no…" He muttered angrily.

Armin stared at what Eren is looking at, two broken pieces of masks on the ground. The pieces had been stepped on by multiple people, the features on it was indistinguishable but if Armin could guess one of them was Eren's hockey mask.

"The other one was for you…" Eren rubbed the back of his head, bruises are shown on his cheek. "Sorry Armin, guess I owe you that twenty dollars, huh?"

Armin said nothing, he only stared at the few fresh products and snacks spread out and trampled on the asphalt. Judging by the actions of Mina and her friends, they have known the Titans long before they do. Now he feared that they would strike again, it seemed that they only attack Maria High students.

Well then, somebody has to put a stop to it.

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 ** _So how was that? Yay? Nay?_**

 ** _IDK... Captain Inspiration has been visiting me rarely this year. But how can I blame him? That's his superpowers, after all._**

 ** _Leave a review if you enjoy it! Follow and favorite for more, because that gives me a reason to write._**

 ** _See you on the next chapter!_**


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